5 Reasons Why I Am Starting This Online Marketing Blog

5 Reasons Why I Am Starting This Online Marketing Blog … And Why Your Small Business Should Start One, Too

Napoleon Hill, author of Think And Grow Rich, one of the all-time greatest motivational business books, once said:

‘Procrastination is the bad habit of putting off until the day after tomorrow, what should have been done the day before yesterday.’

This blog should have been started many months ago. But, it wasn’t.

Do you want to know why? Fear.

I could have dressed my statement above up with all sorts of excuses as to why I haven’t started until now:

I didn’t have time,

I didn’t know what to write,

There was already more than enough information on the web about online marketing,

I wanted to wait until I had a reasonable community on my social networks etc. etc.

But the underlying reason that it wasn’t started, was simply fear.

Fear of putting myself ‘out there’.

Fear of being judged.

Fear of failure.

Fear of producing something that wasn’t “perfect”.

Fear.

So, now that I have ‘put myself out there’, here are the reasons why I decided to do it.

#1 I am passionate about helping people

I LOVE helping people.

It makes me happy.

I love sharing my knowledge and teaching people new skills.

It just so happens, that over the past 10-15 years, I have accumulated, side-by-side, a lot of knowledge about the Australian tourism industry and about online marketing.

Australia has an enormous amount of innovative tourism businesses. They do what they do really, really, well.

However, a large number don’t understand how to market these same businesses online.

This is unfortunate, since more and more of modern life is moving online. Customers expect to see a website address, alongside a phone number. Being online is no longer ‘an option’. It is compulsory, if you want to continue to grow your business.

I guess I just realised that I could help more people by blogging regularly and taking the complex concepts that I enjoy learning and reading about and simplifying them for other small business owners, who are held back by their perceived inability to understand ‘online marketing’.

#2 I decided to ‘Stop Talking and Start Walking’.

I realised that I have frequently advised my small tourism and travel clients over the past months that they needed a blog.

I told them that they needed a blog because it was a great way to keep their business ‘top of mind’ among past and future customers.

I told them that Google loves fresh content – Google wants to see regularly updated content, not websites that were created once then never touched again.

I told them that having a blog would increase the number of visitors they got to their website, the time people spent on their website and their chances of being found by the search engines.

But I wasn’t practising what I preached. I was doing too much talking, and not enough walking.

So today, I am starting to walk.

#3 I need to hone my writing skills.

I have been a writer all my life. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses. Writing is one of my strengths.

So much so, that I am building my business around content marketing and copywriting, as my key services.

But lately, I’ve found myself getting caught up with other activities – writing has stopped being a daily, or even weekly, habit.

One of my all-time favourite resources about writing, is Brian Clark’s Copyblogger, and below is one of my favourite infographics that he has produced.

I decided to start this blog because I suddenly realised that the only way that I was going to become a better writer, and be able to produce better quality writing for my tourism and travel clients, was to write regularly. So, that’s what I’m going to do.

#4 Because I believe in the concept of ‘Starting Before You’re Ready’.

If I had waited to start this blog until I felt ‘ready’, it would never have happened.

We humans are a peculiar species, sometimes. One of our defining characteristics, which separate us from other mammals, is our cognitive ability.

But sometimes, we think too much.

We all have a ‘little voice’ inside our heads (even though some of us deny this).

My little voice is what has been holding me back.

It is this little voice that has been spitting out one excuse after another.

My little voice is probably trying to protect me from being hurt, or challenged, or upset, but I’m going to stop listening to this voice. I’m going to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’.

#5 “Because Procrastination is Opportunity’s Assassin”

I don’t think this quote, by Victor Kiam, needs any further explanation. Do you?

So, I’ve done it. I’ve written my first blog post.

Why You Should Start Blogging Too

Hopefully, many of the reasons I listed above about why I started blogging, will ring true for you, too.

But just in case they don’t, here’s a few more reasons:

Because in writing a blog, you will position yourself as an expert in your field.

You will gain credibility.

You will begin to develop a community of like-minded people who are interested in the same things you are. People who want to learn from you. People who, one day, may become your customers. Or, at least, people who may suggest your business when a friend or a colleague says ‘Any suggestions for where I should stay on my next holiday, or what activities or tours I should do?’

As Calvin Coolidge, 30th US President once said:

“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.”

Now that I have ‘felt the fear and done it anyway’ (that is, written and published my first post), I feel exhilarated! I can’t wait to share my online tourism marketing knowledge and connect with you all!

Contact me today and find out how I can help you to get your blog started and maintained and please let me know in the comments below if there is a particular online marketing question you would like answered in a future post.

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Purple Patch Marketing provides online marketing and copywriting services to small businesses in the Australian travel and tourism industries.
With over 10 years experience within the international and domestic tourism industry and 7+ years experience in digital marketing, Fiona Allan can help you to get your tourism business found online.